You call this a challenge?271 (50)

Complete game on hard difficulty.

Achievement Guide for You call this a challenge?

Achievement won on 10 Jun 13TA Score for this game: 1,458
Posted on 13 June 13 at 08:39

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Since hard mode is unlocked only after beating the game on normal once, I'm going to assume you're fairly familiar with the game already and just try to offer some useful tips to make your life a little easier.

Hard mode is quite different from the normal game. Enemies don't do more damage to you or anything like that, instead you'll find spikes on damn near every wall and enemies put in the most annoying possible places. And homing rockets everywhere, of course!

- Take things one step at a time. This game is quite generous with its checkpoints, so you'll never lose too much progress from a death. Take breaks after hard sections, pat yourself on the back a little. Keep in mind, however, that quitting to the menu will put you back at the beginning of the current "room" instead of at the last checkpoint. For one-room sections like the Library, this means you'll have to do them in one sitting. This can be used in your advantage too, though, since you can "reset" a room if you lose all your vests and happen to hit a difficult checkpoint, giving you a chance to get there again with better equipment.

- Use your items! This seems obvious, but it really isn't. Time bombs kill most enemies in one hit, music boxes can distract them and smoke bombs even allow you to pass right through view cones and laser beams (extremely useful in the Moonbase). Enemies often drop bombs as well, so you can sometimes get back what you used to kill them. Don't forget your burst beams either, they really help for things like the chase sequence with Ken. The laser beams are lifesavers too, especially since you can get so many of them with all the upgrades.

- Know your secrets! Playing through the game on normal, you should try to locate as many secret areas as you can, so you know where they are on hard. Most of the secret star constellations are still worth going for despite being a bit harder, although you can skip the souvenirs altogether. Get as many item carry upgrades as you can too, they really do help out. The secret constellation near the end of the Catacombs is especially important, as it gives you so many useful items along with the stars.

- Know your enemies! A few enemies that rarely appear in the normal game are now very common, mainly the little blue things that home in when you get near. Sometimes there are spikes or other enemies near that you can lure them into, but more often than not you'll just have to dodge them or lure them far enough away that they can't follow you anymore. Another nasty surprise comes in the form of the blue triangular spring enemies that sit on walls, floors and ceilings all throughout hard mode. They can't be destroyed and you'll rarely spot them before it's too late, so they can be quite annoying, and usually requires good timing to get by. Homing rockets is also a very common thing now, with every other enemy using them. It's something you learn to deal with though, and they can be used to kill other enemies, so as long as you keep your cool they don't pose too much of a threat.

- Don't let the first levels get to you. The starting half of the game is quite hard, but it does eventually pan out and get... well, not AS difficult.

Some notes on specific sections next:

The Workshop: Here you only need to collect 25 batteries, but there are plenty more available, so feel free to skip some (specifically that horrible one where you have to jump down a spike shaft).

The shaft right after the Workshop bridge: On normal mode, you simply have to climb up the shaft as the walls close in on you, it's not that bad. On hard, however, you pretty much HAVE to use burst beams as the walls close in much too fast, so make sure your stock of those is full before you cross the bridge.

The chase sequence after the Kitchen boss: This is probably the hardest section in the entire game on hard, simply because of how perfect you have to be. One little slip, and you're done. You WILL need to bomb through some walls as you won't have time to crawl under anything, so make 100% sure your stock is full before you even reach the boss.

The Ken "boss fight": This is just the same as on normal, with the only differences being that his lights move faster and that the janitor takes a LOT longer to open the door, which means he'll only be maybe halfway done by the time you run out of boxes to hide behind. Luckily there is a loop you can exploit by going in a "circle" around the upper right corner part of the room. The lights should just keep circling and never really getting near you, and as long as you wait for Ken to appear near you before you move it's pretty easy. Don't forget smoke bombs in emergencies!

The Brice boss fight: Same as normal, but he takes an extra round of shield-breaking before he goes down, and the balls from his shots appear a lot faster. If you get this far, you can do it.

The section right after the Brice fight: This is interesting. On hard, unlike on normal, you're constantly being pushed back by the wind from outside, and it gets worse and worse the further you get. Most of the section is still fairly easy as long as you time your jumps over the trap doors well. I used a bomb on one of the later cameras as well, since for some reason your laser beams don't work on them and I wanted to play it safe. There's no time limit either, even though the game makes it seem like there is.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message and I'll help you as best I can. Good luck! :)

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